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70s

The album, constructed with the help of legendary producer Phil Ramone, remains one of his best sellers. And he was kind of big for listless suburban teens, like myself, who drunkenly sang along to his tunes at parties with friends. He wasn’t shredding any guitars or thundering any drum-kits or speaking in-code about drugs, but it fit right in with whatever else we were grooving to at the time…

The entire Billy Meier case seems a fantastic flight of fancy that, on first glance, gives the appearance of being the most elaborate and obvious of hoaxes. Yet, was such a nondescript individual such as Billy, with little education and financial means, able to pull off such a ruse? Lee Elders, who published a book of Billy’s photographs, once stated that no one would ever prove the Meier case to be true, but nor would anyone ever disprove it either. That Billy Meier is the most unlikely of prophets lends credence to the idea that perhaps (just perhaps) the story is true…

The Charlestown Chiefs are a two-bit minor league hockey team on the verge of collapse. When the team enlists three sadistic, bespectacled brothers, their violent antics on the ice (they like to play with toys in their spare time) earn the Chiefs a new legion of fans. However, the increasing infamy is no guarantee of the teams’ salvation, and is less than admired by their star player…

Famously, it was the film that saw cinemas distribute vomit bags to audiences at the time of release, with many people fainting in the theatre at the horrific sights on screen. And indeed, the vision of an obscenity-screaming preteen indecently applying a crucifix to herself still remains one of the most unforgettable in cinema history, even by today’s “torture porn” horror film standards. But The Exorcist is more than just a piece of celluloid designed to shock…

Best Ofs can be strange things. Sometimes they’re a great way of road-testing an artist/band. Sometimes the hits are all you want. Other times you’d be better served avoiding them altogether, and seeking out a particular album. Some bands are defined by their hits (eg: Abba), while others are completely misrepresented by them (eg: Genesis). Whatever the case, this was the first thing I ever got of hers/theirs (Sade is the band, Sade Adu is the singer), so I’m recommending it, because it made me eventually seek out their studio albums…

One band that got lost in the shifting sands of the post-grunge years was New York’s Marcy Playground. They were never gonna be a revolutionary band, but I think they were certainly victims of bad timing, and changing trends within the industry. This, their debut, produced the single “Sex and Candy” which became quite a big hit and propelled them into the spotlight for a while. But it soon faded. And they seemed to disappear from the radar. The thing is, this band wrote some really good songs…

It’s tough to dislike a movie that features both Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, and this film is often considered the best of director Allen’s disaster epics of the 70’s. Viewed today however, in the light of CGI, Inferno is a lacklustre experience…

They show no mercy. They have no remorse. They don’t discriminate and they love nothing more than to eat you alive. I’m talking about flesh-eating, scum-sucking Zombies. They are the undead, living corpses, walking stiffs. I have bad news for anyone who thinks they are safe in this world. If we don’t start paying attention to the warning signs, zombies may one day rise and take over the earth…